You're About To Be TAGD

Tomorrow is TAGD. Or is that TAGD Day?

"TAGD" stands for "Tiger Athletics Give Day." So saying "TAGD Day" really is saying "Tiger Athletics Give Day Day."

Speaking of such semantics (and doing so alliteratively), when Trenton State College became The College of New Jersey, TigerBlog wondered about referring to, say, "the TCNJ football team," because you're really saying "the The College of New Jersey football team."

As TB said, semantics.

TAGD starts at midnight tonight Princeton time (Princeton time? Now that would be quite egomaniacal of the University) and runs for exactly 24 hours.

This is the second TAGD, or TAGD Day. The first one, held last year in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of Princeton Athletics, was an enormous, incredible success in every way.

The "Tiger Athletics Give Day" website (WHICH YOU CAN ACCESS HERE) has all kinds of information about how the day works, what's involved, what prizes can be won by the various teams and Friends Groups. There's also the "You've Been TAGD" video and other TAGD things.

And if you follow @putigers on Twitter, you've seen a steady stream of pictures old and new, with hashtags #showyourstripes and #TAGD.

For TigerBlog, the exciting part of TAGD isn't so much the total dollars raised. That part is nice, and the money is essential for Princeton to field the kind of teams it wants to and provide the kind of experience the Department of Athletics wants to for its current generation of athletes.

Still, it runs so much deeper than that. TAGD speaks to the kind of loyalty that exists at Princeton, and it's a testament to the fact that Princeton Athletics has in fact been successful in providing that great experience, the kind that makes people want to give back year after year, decade after decade. TigerBlog has said this many times before, but this is something that is special about Princeton.

TigerBlog would ask you to jump in and help like you always do, but he's pretty sure you already are thinking that way. Midnight to midnight. Princeton time.

Before TAGD can began, there's a men's basketball game tonight against Fairleigh Dickinson at Jadwin Gym. And before the basketball game, there's the final episode of "Who's the Tiger," the video series that has run throughout the fall semester leading up to TAGD. TB thinks it's been a pretty funny series - he might not be objective - and he likes the way the last one turned out.

Of course, before all of that, there's something that TB has waited the entire Thanksgiving weekend to mention. What is it?

The 104 points that the men's basketball team put up against Lafayette last Wednesday night at Jadwin.

TigerBlog did not need in any way to look up the last time Princeton reached 100 points in a men's basketball game. He knew that it was in 1971, against Yale. He looked that up a long time ago, and honestly, there have been basically almost no nights since he started watching Princeton play that he thought the Tigers would get there again.

Here is the list of games in which the men's basketball team has reached at least 100 points:

118 vs. Wichita State 1965
116 vs. Dartmouth 1967
110 vs. Colgate 1966
109 vs. Providence 1965
108 vs. Lafayette 1966
108 vs. Yale 1971
107 vs. Cornell 1965
106 vs. Brown 1954
104 vs. Lafayette 2015
103 vs. Dartmouth 1965
101 vs. Rutgers 1958
100 vs. Columbia 1957
100 vs. Dartmouth 1964

That would be 13 times in 2,714 all-time games. Or once every 209 games. And of those 13 games, eight of them came between 1964-67, or as TB likes to call it, "The Gary Walters Years." Okay, okay, Gary was on the freshman team in 1963-64. Yeah, yeah.

Princeton played 108 games between 1963-64 and 1978-68, reaching 100 eight times. That's once every 13.5 games. Factor that out, and Princeton has reached 100 points once every 521 games.

Lafayette isn't exactly a bad team. The Leopards are the defending Patriot League champ, and they defeated Penn Sunday. Princeton not only put 104 but also doubled up the 'Pards, winning 104-52.

The Tigers had five players in double figures against Lafayette and shot 17 for 35 from three-point range. Will Princeton shoot like that consistently? That's asking a lot. So is getting to 100 points again, given how infrequently it's happened in program history.

Still, there's a lot to like about this team in the early going.

Princeton is 3-0, still with a long way to go until the Ivy League season starts. There are some really nice matchups on the horizon in December, including trips to St. Joe's (Saturday), Maryland (Dec. 19) and Miami (Dec. 29).

Princeton is deep, and it plays well together. There are four players who average in double figures and four others who are at at least eight points per game. And, wildly enough, Princeton is outrebounding its opponents by 10 per game.

So there's the game tonight. And the "Who's the Tiger" finale today.

And TAGD tomorrow.

That's a busy few hours around here.